Ex-Sutherland rev's refugee camp service
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A CHURCH of Scotland minister who served as a locum in two Sutherland parishes, has spoken of her recent experience volunteering in a refugee camp in France.
Rosemary Power, a writer in Christian spirituality and medieval history, is well known in East Sutherland where she served for some time as locum minister for Brora and Helmsdale.
Last Christmas the churches of both villages, along with other local people, collected clothes to donate through Highland Refugee Support.
And in the autumn of 2019, Rev Power was inspired to join a diverse group of volunteers working with organisations that support refugees in Calais – groups include Care4Calais, First Aid Support Team, Refugee Community Kitchen and Help Refugees.
She said: “All volunteers pay their own way. Some were retired and had special skills but most were young and far from wealthy. Many were students, like the young medic who regularly brought a group from her university.
"There was a city finance officer who resigned her job to work in a refugee kitchen and a police officer who gave a week of her leave. Young people from Holland and Germany volunteered out of solidarity and to expand their horizons and many local people also do what they can.”
The largest Calais refugee camp, known as the Jungle, was cleared by police some years ago but a number of smaller camps housing several thousand people have now sprung up both in Calais, Dunkirk and elsewhere including a short distance from the European Parliament in Brussels.
“Some camps are well organised by the occupants and there may be young families there,” said Rev Power. “Others where there is no common language, are not organised. A few hundred young men sleep wild in the woods around Calais. It is not easy sleeping there as there are regular evictions by the military police.”
The various charities operate warehouses where donations of clothing, sleeping bags and tents and other items are stored, as well as a refugee kitchen - a mobile unit that provides some 1500 hot meals a day.
There is also a day centre where people can access legal advice, charge their phones, socialise and play games.
“The warehouses looked full, but one spell of cold weather can mean they empty fast,” said Rev Power. “Donations, which like much-needed money, come from unseen contributors such as those who provided in Sutherland, had to be sorted, checked for rips and sometimes washed before being sorted and sized, ready for distribution. We gave out, as far as possible, the same items on any one day, such as, says, a sweatshirt, socks and jackets.
“My first distribution was after an eviction, where refugees’ possessions were confiscated and tents deliberately slashed. We could offer that day a tent or sleeping bag, but not both.
“Wherever we went, we also provided hot drinks, a charging point for vital mobile phones, a pop-up barbers’s shop, and we also played games and chatted.”
Ms Power came across refugees of different nationalities - Kurds, Afghans, Syrians, Eritreans, Iranians and others from war-torn countries and oppressive regimes. Most were looking towards Britain.
“The most common reason for people arriving on the north coast of France with a vision of Britain is family reunion,” she said. “Some people are simply stuck where their traffickers deposited them. Some feel drawn because they speak some English and have a hope-filled vision of Britain.”
She added: “We now know that the new Withdrawal Bill in Parliament means that it will be even harder for underage refugees seeking family in Britain to be accepted.”
Rev Power made sure to take time to speak to the refugees she met and ask them about their experiences.
“Each story was different,” she said. “A young man with sad eyes that came alight only when he spoke of his faith, told how he now had no family to return to. He had fled because of Boko Haram. His dearest wish was to study and contribute to society.
“I met a widowed father struggling to raise four small boys together in a tent and also a professor whose wife was in a cancer hospital in London but who had been refused a visa to visit her. He had left his little daughter with a sister and ventured across Europe. Desperate, he tried to cross the Channel with 22 others in an inflatable boat but had to be rescued by a French vessel after high waves threatened to capsize the inflatable.”
On her last day, Rev Power went to one of the vast cemeteries in the village of Souchez to visit the grave of one of her great-uncles who was killed in 1915 at the age of just 19.
She said: “I prayed that we would not squander the lives of other young men. Like that war, the refugee situation needs a political solution. As the world heats up due to climate change, refugees will increase. As a Christian I believe that every human life is of value and that peace is the costly fruit of justice and grace. We need to seek a humane resolution to the refugee problem.
"After my trip to the cemetery, I went to the village bistro, which was full with all-age families enjoying Sunday lunch in a peace denied to others not far away.”
